Scientists, students show off at Quincy Festival

QUINCY – Three floors of the Quincy Innovation Center were teeming with activity on Saturday afternoon as kids played anatomically-correct corn hole, found their center of gravity using a slinky and stared in awe at a quadcopter drone whipping through the air. Families, scientists and students came together at the third annual South Shore Science Festival on Saturday to explore different aspects of science and get involved with hands-on activities at about 30 stations and workshops.

The average attendee was around 10 years old, and that’s exactly what brought Quincy High School Green Team to the festival.

“It’s good to start young. It sounds cliche, but if you can teach kids at a young age to recycle and do good things for the environment, they’ll remember it as they become adults,” said Soledad Lalla.

Lalla, Shaheen Soto and Grace Hall are Quincy High students who hosted an Earth Day workshop at the festival. The students, all members of the school’s environmental club, presented on green house emissions and the effects of global warming on the planet.

“We try to spread awareness of global warming and climate change, as well as teach people about recycling and other ways to reduce their carbon footprint,” Solo said.

Organizer Mauel Barroso said the girls had the right idea when it came to engaging the youngest of the festival’s audience.

“The goal is to get the kids interested in science and get them prepared. We want to give them the interests and skills they need to fill all the open jobs we have here in the United States,” he said. “The other objective is to have parents play with their kids. If parents can turn math and science into play, it makes it fun.”

Exhibitors ranged from local scientists to students at South Shore schools and employees at nearby tech companies. Barroso and the festival’s co-chair Kathy Hogan spent the year finding and inviting presenters to the festival.

“The key requirement was that they had to have interactive activities for kids,” Barroso said. “I also went to high school science fairs to see what kids were working on, and I invited the ones I thought were the most interactive and related best to what we were trying to do here.”

One of those students was Quincy High School freshman Alexander Ireland, who presented his science fair project called “Saving Space, Saving Lives.” Ireland considered the world’s top 10 major cities in the most danger of experiencing a natural disaster, and what would happen if millions found themselves suddenly homeless.

“All these cities have over 10 million people and they’re all in danger of being misplaced,” he said. “Say with Syria, there is not enough space to house all the refugees that are fleeing the country.”

From there, he designed a truncated octahedron home that could house a family of four. The homes stack on top of one another, saving what he says is 73 percent of the space that would be needed to house the population of Tokyo - 37 million people. He created 2-inch models using a 3-D printer and showcased them at the Festival.

Ireland won third place at his school and regional science fair, and will take his project to the state competition at MIT next month. From there, he hopes to create more detailed models and secure a patent.

“We need more kids like this,” said Quincy resident Amy Feldman, who brought her 6, 8 and 10-year-old sons to the event. “I’m going to be telling my kids to pay attention!”